So what does one do before the 2011 One Lap of America?

Tune the nut behind the wheel and improve the car so that it’s ready for next years event!

I’ll share some experiences with how my Evo X faired at the May 24/25th HPDE event down at Watkins Glen earlier this week. I was coming down off a high placing well at the One Lap event and wanted to see what the car could do at my home track by pushing it a bit harder without breaking anything. Well at the end of my first video I found the one weakness the car might have and did a small off track detour but it wasn’t anything too major. Luckily they had just revamped Watkins Glen for safety and areas that were gravel traps were now paved over with improved safety walls set in place in case the paved run off areas weren’t enough to recover.

It seems that while the threshold braking is amazing with the Girodisc 2 piece front rotors and Rabyestos ST-43 pads, even the Yokohama AD08 have their limits for traction when on the binders hard. At Watkins Glen there seems to be numerous braking zones that are downhill, and once the ABS engages fully, it really doesn’t slow the car down nearly as well when compared to threshold braking where the ABS is just about to kick in. What caught me off guard at times was when I would get a late pass point bye in the black (advanced) run group, most of the cars weren’t lifting as we approached the turn so being stuck passing offline meant I had to extend my braking zone into the apex of the turn, make corrections at the apex based on how early I entered, and then power out with relative safety if I did it right.

When I really stomped on the brakes and got full ABS to kick in, the car became very greasy and didn’t want to rotate very well at all when at the limits. I had the ASC turned off one touch which meant at least the power was not being cut, but the ABS were supposed to still be there to assist in steering the car to where I had the wheel pointed which didn’t always seem to be the case. It seemed that if the system was overwhelmed it would just understeer and kick in antilocks so much that I likely had to let off the brakes, correct the angle, and then get on them again in order to make it work. I probably could have also gotten on the power and power drifted the car around the turns when overcooked but figured it should work with using braking control as well. I experimented with turning the ASC off for 5 second push so that the ABS assist for turning was off as well but never got into a situation where I could definitively say it made the difference.

Last year I vividly remembered that the Porsche GT3′s were about equal on the track for power, braking, and handling where as a certain black 2007 Z06 driven by a nice guy named David was tearing up the track when he had race rubber and most everyone else was on steet tires. Well this year with the Coilovers, stickier street tires, and possibly slightly better driving I noticed a change. While the power on the straights was still similar since I detuned the car to around 500 crank hp at 25 psi, I could outbrake those GT3′s and easily turn inside of them in the corners now. The Z06 that I attempted to pace last year which warped my brakes after 1 lap overdriving the car was now within sight for a couple laps, and by the last session of the 2nd day I was able to keep pace doing 2:15 laps and the car seemed to hold up fine without any worries. After talking it seems that when he gets a clean lap he can lap around 2:10 or slightly better so my next goal will be to tweak a few things to see if I can pull that pace off on a street tire setup through increased reliable power (~650 crank HP goal), wider street tires (295mm?), and possibly a few suspension changes.

Overall the BC Racing ER series coilovers performed quite well and I increased the stiffness of my shocks bound (compression) and rebound to a stiffer 20 (of 30) setting all around with a few tweaks after that. Overall the car had minimal tire rollover on those settings with the -2.5* front and -1.5* rear camber settings and the stiffer shock setup. Still you could really toss the car around and not have any worries that the car would suddely experience snap oversteer, and besides the ABS taking over control at times, the car turned in amazingly well for 20+ minutes of track time and allowed accurate vehicle placement without having to muscle the car. As I pushed the limits a bit more on the 2nd day, I started learning the technique to get more bite out of the tires where you release the wheel and turn in again. The only places the car felt a bit dangerous was up the esses so I was still letting off slightly and boosting 20 psi until the car felt more settled before powering up to the back straight where I was reaching 145-150mph before getting on the binders at the 400 ft mark leading into the bus stop.

The only major issue I had was fuel starvation, and with the new found handling and more aggressive cornering it turns out that a 2nd session is not possible without topping off the tank since the left hand exit from the off camber turn 9 caused fuel starvation I would rather not experience again. Luckily I brought my 5 gallon fuel tank and just refilled that when making my mid day refueling trip in town. Plans are to get a fuel surge tank setup in place along with a 400 LPH fuel pump matched to the Deatschwerks 1500cc injectors I have yet to install. Basically at 7 MPG I go through about 1 gallon of fuel every two laps at Watkins Glen long course (3.4 miles) and that means after 12 laps (~27 minutes) the car is approaching half a tank of fuel.

I’ve got about 50 minutes of in car video footage from the various sessions over the 2 day HPDE and tried to list a brief summary under each video. The first one has the most traffic where I must have passed over 20 cars during the entire session and the last video shows that Z06 on race rubber that I’m keeping pace with just barely. So go to full screen mode and turn up the sound because it’s “almost” as good as being there yourself.

You’ll have to double click the videos to enter youtube in order to see the full descriptions.

Day 1 – Session 3 (Heavy Traffic, passing 15 cars in this 10 min clip)

 Day 1 – Session 4 (Passing Steve’s near stock Evo X on back stretch, caught silver Z06)

Day 2 – Session 1 (Late Passing Exercise with Steve at start, later doing some 2:16 laps)

 Day 2 – Session 2 (4 wheel drifts down the chute and late passing practice)

Day 2 – Session 3 (Pacing Black Z06 through traffic with around 2:15 lap times)

Returning to run the car on Watkins Glen for a track session, after spending a week on One Lap of America, is like celebrating Christmas after opening all of your Hanukkah gifts.

It also helps relieve the knee jerking pain that happens after One Lap is over and the entire world goes silent. For this year’s team it was a chance to get back on the track, have some fun, and relieve a little stress from the build up of One Lap. Tim, Chris and I booked the trip to the Glen with the PCA group long before One Lap. Sean was placed in a marital and financial holding pattern, which might get him back on track again in the fall if we are lucky.

I had the easiest amount of preparation time in the group, as it involved putting a set of seasoned brake pads on the relatively stock Evo X with only 10K miles on it. The only other things on the agenda was to get the Race-Keeper system setup in the car and attempt to tune out the smoke screen of fuel, indicating I was running a bit too rich.

Two weeks before we left, Chris left me with homework to do,

and I ended up data logging the car to work every day. The car went away last winter with a nasty case of running too rich, and I wanted to make sure to lean it out enough before this Watkins Glen trip, to prevent the black flag from coming out. A few emails with spreadsheets, followed by a few revisions to the current ECU tune, and Chris had the car running relatively smoke free, with an underlying clause that I need to get a wideband o2 sensor before he leans it out any more.

Having the car relatively stock and running laps with Chris was going to be painful. I love my car, but Chris has 150 HP on me, a suspension that was handed down by the gods of Darkside Engineering, brakes of biblical proportions thanks to Tuners Nation and Girodisc. I feel a little under-prepared all of a sudden. I was also a little light in the wallet, after the One Lap trip, so taking out a second mortgage to keep up with Chris’s modifications, wasn’t going to happen.

One of the upgrades from the dealer in the Mitsubishi Evo X, is an aluminum shift knob. It has always confused me as to why this is considered an upgrade, as the aluminum hasabout two days during the whole year where it doesn’t burn or freeze your hand when you grab it. So yes, my only upgrade on the car is a new short throw shifter along with a shift knob made of derlin to keep my hand from burning every time I go to grab the shifter. Completely lame, not a chance in hell it will make a difference against Chris, but it made me feel better.

The Death of the Race-Keeper

I finally had a car to really get to play with Race-Keeper and I managed to blow it.  Race-Keeper has this cool capacity to datalog information from your cars computer while you drive, so you can use this to overlay things right over your video.  We didn’t get to use this for the 1992 Galant VR4 on One Lap, since it uses OBDII, a standard in all vehicles after 1996.

I had run some updates on the Race-Keeper before One Lap, which somehow left me unable to record to the SD card.  Most of One Lap, I recorded using USB sticks, which you can just plug into the side of the device.  Now I needed that USB port to make the fancy logging portion work, so I attempted to get the Race-Keeper update pushed to the device again.  Of course I completely lobotomized the device, leaving it unable to produce even a blinking light for me.  I sadly gave it back to Wilson Performance before I even hit the road for Watkins Glen.  Perhaps we can try that one again in the fall.

So with last years brake pads, Chris’s old set of tires, a stock Evo X with a tuning update, and no real video system to play with, I was ready for Watkins Glen.

Now that One Lap is over and I am back to reality, its time to fix the VR-4 and get her ready for a couple of days at my home track, Watkins Glen.  If you’ve followed us along our journey you know the VR-4 had some issues.  We popped a head gasket right off the bat, tossed a rocker arm at Hallet, the radiator was oozing in a couple of spots, we had brake issues, front wheel bearing issues, broken wheel studs, and one really cool off road excursion.

The first thing I did when I got home is re-installed my Baer track brake kit.  That didn’t take much time and like an old friend, it was nice to have them back.  Then I got on the ball and started ordering parts.  Brakes, rotors, a new radiator, and material to build brake cooling ducts and a bigger radiator catch can were all desperately needed.  After putting it off as long as I could I finally dug into the head gasket.  The first thing I found was a 2″ split in the intercooler pipe coupler that connects to the throttle body.  The amazing thing is I think its been split since mid week during One Lap.  Another testament to ECMlink and its V3 speed density.  The car didn’t miss a beat even with the huge leak.

I knew the radiator had issues.  It may have been damaged due to the bad head gasket or it could have just failed because it couldn’t take the abuse.  Either way I have a new one ready to go and after a little welding it should slip right in.  Inspecting the old radiator I found at least three areas that were leaking where the core connects to the end tanks.

I could tell just by looking at the car that I “tweaked” the front end when I went off at Hallet.  The evidence was hard to miss as one of the front wheels has about a degree more camber then the other and that tire also shows some wear on the inside indicating a toe issue as well.  Something caught my eye while working on the head gasket…I think something moved on one of the RRE caster/camber plates

Once I got the head off the car and inspected things I was happy to find that the rocker which had fallen out actually stayed put.  There is a noticeable grove in the cam lobe which means it will have to be replaced but there isn’t enough time before the Glen so I am just going to leave it as is.

At first glance the head gasket surface between the head/block looked good but once I pealed the gasket from the head I found three areas where not only had the gasket leaked but big chunks of it were missing.  That’s some real gasket carnage!

A new head gasket is on and my fingers are crossed that it will hold.  This time I’ll keep the boost to 25psi or less and not attempt any more of those 33psi dyno runs.

Its also time to say good-bye to a good friend.  The Forced Performance FP3052 that Art Hoffman loaned us for the race is off the car and ready to be shipped back.  With all the problems we had this year that turbo was flawless.  It pulled like a freight train in every gear and with the tuning we did this year lag was not an issue.  A big thanks to Art Hoffman for lending his support again this year and for Forced Performance for making sure it gets back to Art in perfect shape.

After 9 days of driving with over 4500 miles under our belts, we returned from a successful rookie  year fielding my 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution X. With 1st place in the Mid-Priced Sedan class out of 10 cars and 7th overall out of 68 cars, it’s hard to imagine that we could have done any better for our first year out. Our strategy for this year was to shoot for a top 20 finish without risking the car since it’s also a daily driver. Since we didn’t previously drive any of the tracks before this event, we knew that our morning sessions would be about learning the course and that the afternoon session we hoped to improve more than the rest of the field on average. You know when the entry list includes Leh Keen in a well prepared Porsche GT2, last year’s champion GTR team, another GTR piloted by Catesby Jones and Jose Callado, and a well sorted out Corvette pilotted by Danny Popp and the team, you are going to be up against some stiff competition in the top 10.  As the events progressed it was obvious those teams were a cut above the rest and we had our work cut out for us.

As Brock Yates Jr said to the rookie class this year, “it doesn’t matter how well you run, if you aren’t there on the last day, you don’t have a shot”.  Prophetic words, or maybe just lots of experience being passed down to the next generation of one lappers. From day 1, the first goal was always just to finish and being there on the last day can be it’s own victory. Going into a race event like this you have to know up front that reliability & consistency is absolutely key when it comes to accumulating points for overall placement. While our teammates Tim and Steve in the VR4 were battling brake issues for a combo that needed some more track testing, the Girodisc 2 piece rotors and Raybestos ST43 pads that were provided by Tunersnation and Girodisc were absolutely flawless. While the race pads weren’t recommended for street driving, I didn’t want to compromise ultimate braking power and there was no way we wanted to swap pads every event. Luckily these are some long lasting pads as they wore less than 2mm for the entire week of driving and weren’t that hard to tolerate for the mostly highway driving between events. The pads always had ample stopping power and when mated to the Girodisc 2 piece rotors, the combination gave positive, direct feedback at the limit. Knowing that your car is going to haul down from 150mph to speeds that will allow you to survive corners that you have never seen before can make all the difference in the world with car confidence.

With the typical time attack format you are given some practice sessions on the road course before going for your best hot laps. With One Lap of America, you get a single scouting lap and then begin 3 hot laps from a standing start. When it comes to clicking off fast laps, having previous track experience on that particular road course can play a huge role as does having ample seat time with your current car setup. Our team unfortunately had neither as we were still tweaking suspension setups up to the day we left for South Bend. Neither one of us had any track time on the new setup and the first time Sean drove the Evo X at the limit was at Mid-America. Luckily we found that the car really shined in it’s ability to keep itself on the track despite being piloted by drivers that didn’t always know what to expect around the next corner. If we had to assign a number to it, we were able to consistently drive 8-9 tenths, where as most of the other drivers were attacking corners at 9-10 tenths from what we saw. Keeping the ASC off with a single button push meant that the annoying power cut feature was turned off while retaining the ABS assist to help turn the car when a bit over driven. The AYC (Active Yaw Control) setup on this Evo X mated to the BC Racing ER series suspension on 10k springs gives the car slight oversteer at the limits and predictable handling. The guys at Darkside Engineering were great when deciding the rough setup we should go with and they were pretty much right on as to where we should start the suspension tuning.  We ended up keeping the suspension on middle of the road street friendly settings that were just stiff enough for the smooth tracks, excellent for bumpy tracks, and livable on the street. We found out quickly that the wet skidpad can be a handful if the rear end is too stiff and you have ASC turned off completely.

When you are at the track from 8 am until 3 pm and then have an 8 hour ahead of you before even thinking about sleep, the last thing you want to worry about is fixing the car or resolving an issue. This was a key reason we decided to detune the car down to 25 psi where it was likely only making around 500 crank HP. Spending that extra week on car preparation and maintenance goes a long way to making sure you finish an event like this as well. Missing even one event with a DNF is a huge hurdle to overcome and the #6 Subaru Sti that we were battling for the class win was a prime example. Their driving was excellent on the road courses but due to a 52nd result on the Wet Skid pad, they were forced into catch up mode through the first half of the events.  We edged them out at the drag strip mid way through which helped us stay ahead and remain 1st in class.

We knew all things being equal, we would have had to crank up the boost and get more aggressive with the driving to hold them off for the second half which was a dangerous proposition being our first year out. As fate would have it, they literally drove the wheels off the car and the launches at the drag strip took their toll resulting in a snapped axle at the Gateway oval and a double DNF for the day. At that point, we decided that sticking with the same strategy we had from the beginning would be our best plan in order to hold onto the class win and still stay in the top 10 overall standing: be consistent, drive 8 tenths, and finish each event. If we had more experience with the road courses we were driving on and more seat time in the car, we could have pushed for a top 5 finish but the risk for failure and breaking the car was too great.  Even if we did push harder, the cars at the top were very well-prepared with incredibly fast drivers and it would taken more than an extra tenth to catch them.

Next year we will definitely be pushing the car harder and hopefully drive a few of the tracks before the event starts. Based on the numbers, we’ll need to pick up the pace 2-3 sec a lap to stay competitive in class and 6-7 seconds per lap to even think about challenging the front runners. Next time around we plan on having all of the improvements track tested so that there won’t be any surprises and more seat time behind the wheel will be critical as well. The BC Racing ER series coilovers held up excellent for the events, although with all the rough public roads we tortured the car through, we found that some of the components started to loosen up and needed to be tightened down again.  When going over the car after the event, the driver’s side rear swaybar nut was missing so that’s one more place we’ll have to watch like a hawk when tracking this car. Running through a checklist before each days events is likely a very good idea since even small problems can end up being a nightmare when at speed on these tracks.

The Yokohama AD08 tires were also impressive as they are some of the best street tire handling I’ve ever driven on. With about 7mm of starting tread depth, we found that the inside edges of the front tires wore about 2mm where as the rest of the tire wore about 1mm with the -2.5* front and -1.5* rear camber settings and close to zero toe. Finding a tire that performs any better would be hard to do but we’re looking forward to more testing this season at Watkins Glen to see what might work even better in wider sizes. Before the event we took a serious look at the Dunlop Direzza Star Spec’s as they had been run by our team mates in the VR4. We had initially wanted to use that tire, but as they did not have any sizes we could use on the 19″ wheels, we were forced to go with the more expensive Yokohama’s.  Would the Direzza’s have worked as well as the Yokohama’s for this event? We would certainly welcome the chance to compare the two to find the best options for the money.

Gas mileage wise we were able to double check how accurate the in dash calculator really is. While at the track we were getting a horrid 6-7 MPG, on the highway we saw a much more eco friendly 27-30 MPG. After some refills I double checked the mileage based on replacing the fuel and miles traveled and it appears that it is only about 5% optimistic at worst. That means an indicated 28 MPG was about 27 MPG actual which isn’t too shabby considering 2 people and a fair amount of tools and gear in the car for the trip. We tried to make sure we were always topped off for all the road courses but were tight on time when we arrived at NJMP. Turns out that just under a half a tank WILL result in fuel starvation when pulling that long right hand sweeper at WOT that lasts a good 15 seconds. You can be assured that we’ll have a good anti-surge fuel system in place for next year!                                                                               

We want to give a big shout out to all of our sponsors this year, but especially our main sponsors:

TunersNation
Garfield at TunersNation has been fantastic to work with. He was always on top of what we were looking for, was always willing to help in any way he could, and was sincerely looking to help us succeed. There is no doubt in our minds without his help, we wouldn’t have performed as well as we did.  Be sure he will do what is needed to help you out for any of your parts needs.

GiroDisc
Johann and Martin at Girodisc have been providing great products for the Evo community.  The 2 piece floating rotors they provided to us through Garfield are no different. Right out of the box, they are about as close to brake art as you can get. The quality was incredible and the functionality was even better. When you are throwing a 3600 lb car down a track at 140+ mph, the last thing you want to worry about is your brakes. The floating rotor designed kept them straight, true, and effective at all heat ranges and pedal pressures. Mated with the Raybestos ST43 pads and some well routed ducting, they didn’t show one sign of warping, gouging or runout issues. You beat the crap out of them and they just keep coming back for more. Sean was so impressed, he is looking to replace his brake setup on his Evo IX track/autocross car with the same rotor setup.

ThreeSpeed
Harry has been a long time supporter of the DSM and Galant VR4 communities and a long time friend to the Galant VR4 OLOA team. His scattershields are top notch and are run on some of the fastest 4G63 powered cars. His support of the team, both the EvoX and the Galant VR4, helped us be in a position to be successful in our One Lap of America campaign.

Darkside Engineering
The guys at Darkside Engineering worked with us when we were looking to upgrade our suspension to something that would give us the handling and durability we needed to run the One Lap. Their suggestion was the BC ER Series coilovers and we were very happy with the results. The ER series gave us the adjustability and flexibility we needed to get the car in shape in a short amount of time. Without Darkside’s help in the initial setup, the car would not have been as behaved as it was as we would have spent much of our time dialing in the basics instead of testing entry, mid-corner and exit states. For a mid-priced sportsman suspension, the BC ER series are extremely capable and definitely worth a look if you are looking to get into tracking days, autocrosses, or just make your car handle better.

Many thanks to our other sponsors and supporters:

Deatschwerks

Karpus Investment Management

Street Tuned Motorsports

All our friends and families!

Here are some in car videos of the Evo X in action. Eventually we’ll have a full set uploaded to our main site so be sure to check back later. We’ll try and answer any questions people may have here as well as post an update when major updates are done to the site. Next year we’ll probably run with an external dump tube, for now you’ll have to turn up the volume a bit to hear the car.

Chris Wirth at NJMP Lightning Raceway – Session 2 (complete with overcooked corner in 2nd hot lap)

Sean Caron at Nelson Ledges – Session 2

We had a great time meeting tons of new people and will definitely be back next year.  Thanks to some great new sponsors that are going to make funding this trip much easier in the future, we will be raising money for a good charity for next year and have fun doing it! If you would like to get involved in our 2011 One Lap bid, please feel free to contact us through the RochesterDSM One Lap page for more details. Thanks for reading!

Chris Wirth  and  Sean Caron
#15  2010 One Lap of America
1st Place – Mid Priced Sedan
7th Place Overall

By now its no longer a secret that the VR-4 is getting a wing.  Not just a “ricer” looking wing but a real-deal if you have to ask you can’t afford it type of wing.  The deal was too good to pass up so we went for it.  What does a rear wing do?  In simplest terms it pushes down on the back of the car.  The faster you go the harder it pushes.  The angle of the wing can be adjusted to “dial” in the amount of down force.  So why the wing?  Having a rear wing helps keep the rear of the car planted and adds overall to the amount of grip the car has.  It also lets you set the car up to over steer at low speeds when the wing has a smaller amount of down force and when you go faster the car becomes neutral so you can take transitions at higher speeds.  The problem is that whenever you push on the back of the car you end up slightly lifting the front.  That’s important because when you want the car to turn you need all the weight you can get on the front tires.

This is where the front splitter comes in.  A splitter is noting more then a big flat piece of something attached to the area under the front bumper which directs air under the car.  Since the air under the car has a shorter distance to travel then the air going over the car it moves faster..  Bernoullis’ principal says faster moving air has a lower pressure and that lower pressure is what causes front down force.   It’s that down force that we are after to help balance out the added down force of the rear wing.

For a splitter to work it has to be flat, parallel to the ground, and be able to hold together at high speeds.  The benefit of the splitter gets better the further back under the car it goes and in

real race cars is part of an under tray that includes a flat middle and a diffuser at the rear.  With very little time to build a splitter we are only going to bring ours as far back as the front of the front tires.  To help the fact that we are not going very far back under the car we are going to extend the lip of the splitter almost 5 inches beyond the lower lip of the fascia.

To build the splitter I chose a product called alumalite which is a sandwich of aluminum-plastic honeycomb-aluminum.  Its used for signs and the sides of tractor trailers.   I was able to get a 4′ x 8′ sheet of 1/4″ alumalite for $90 locally.  Working with it is pretty easy.  You can drill it, cut it in a table saw, use a grinder, or pretty much any other power tool you have.  Lightweight and strong it’s a pretty versatile material for race cars.

A splitter has to be strong.  It has to be able to withstand high loads without bending.  If it bends you loose some of the benefit and some of the down force.  So to make this as strong as I could I decided to build a frame for it out of 1″ aluminum tube.  The frame would be then bolted to 1/2″ nuts that I will weld to the bottom of the.  I used two on the engine cross member with a third on the radiator core support.  I’ve jacked the car up on the engine cross member so I know its strong enough to handle the loads of the splitter.

I am using 1/2″ bolts to attach it to the car so I welded up some 1″ tube risers to the frame to set the height of the splitter.  The lower the splitter the better it works but the lower you build it the better chance you have of having it rip off when you get a little to aggressive over a set of rumble strips.  I decided to build it with 5″ of ground clearance which is just enough to get in and out of my driveway and low enough, I think, to work.

Once in place there is a large gap between the bottom of the fascia and the splitter that must be filled.  After looking for materials to fill that gap I settled on the alumalite.  By cutting relief cuts on the back side I was able to form it around a Map gas bottle so I knew it would conform to the larger curves of the fascia.

Here are some of the first shots of it one the car.  It takes some getting used to messing up the classic lines of a VR-4 but in the never ending hunt for more speed and more grip it was something we had to try.

With the splitter and the air dam built it was now time to turn to a support system.  I need to build a set of turnbuckles to support the leading edge of the splitter and to allow some up-down adjustment to fine tune the amount of down force.  I found a set of turnbuckles at my local hardware store that along with some threaded rod and clevis pins would give me what I needed.

To get a way to use a clevis pin I welded in some washers into the looped end of the stock turnbuckles and then drilled them to size.

I welded up some mounts to attach to the bumper brace and used some angle aluminum to make the lower mounts.  To attach the lower portion of the turnbuckles I drilled a threaded rod union to accept the clevis pin.

Once all together I painted the lip satin black to help hide it’s ridiculous proportions and did the final install on the car.

Finally once fitted it was time a test drive.  Notice how much clearance I have getting out of my own driveway!  This thing is nuts.  After a couple of days of driving it’s been easy to live with and the looks are growing on me.    I’ve only taken a few hot corners with it and so far it feels like it has more grip.  I think there is a side benefit to the splitter under braking.  As the nose of the car dives down the splitter turns into a big air scoop which I think is going to help.

As with any new part there needs to be some testing and adjustment to see the full benefit and I will have an update once I get this on a race track.

TunersNation has stepped up and sponsored the One Lap VR-4 with a new set of brakes.  It’s no easy task matching the stopping power and economical maintenance cost of the Baer Track system it replaces.  So when Garfield called with the news I was sceptical at first but when the parts started showing up and I could actually put them in my hands it became clear that these new brakes are up to the task.

TunersNation has supplied us with one of there custom 3000GT VR4 kits for the Galant VR-4.  The kit uses the 4-piston calliper from the 91-93 GT VR4 along with its 12.4” rotor.  The callipers are big and beefy.  Cast from only two pieces and with no bridging bolts they feature 0 calliper flex.  This allows for an internal fluid passage between halves which is a more durable design then the Brembo/Wilwood external balance line.

The rotors are from DBA 4000 series which are DBA’s mid-series enhanced performance rotor features Thermal Stability Profiling for improved heat handling and Thermo-Graphicpaint markings for effective heat monitoring.  This rotor incorporates the innovative Kangaroo Paw ventilation design, which runs cooler, stronger and outperforms traditional straight vane disc rotors by up to 20%.

Mounting the callipers are a set of TunersNation own mounting brackets water jet cut from ½” steel.  Hardened bolts hold everything in place and a new set of SS brake lines were included too. To make sure the One Lap VR-4 was well prepared for battle TunersNation sent along two sets of rotors, callipers, and brackets!

Garfield, using one of his countless connections in the business, contacted the people at Project Mu.  Project Mu is like the Hawk Brakes of Japan.  Project Mu donated a set of there HPC+ which feature a high coefficient of friction with the ability to take a beating at the track.

Installation was simple.  After removing the Baer track gear and the brake lines the new bracket is bolted to the spindle with the supplied hardware.  I then mounted the rotor and held it in place with a lug nut.  An interesting side note with the Mitsubishi rotor is that you no longer need the hub centric ring that the Baer kit requires.  One the rotor was on the calliper can be mounted.  Using the supplied washers, I adjusted the calliper spacing so that it was centered on the rotor.  It only took a few minutes and that was done.  The new callipers use the slick drop in pad like the Brembo callipers which makes changing pads at the track a snap.  Installing the brake lines was strait forward and from the removal to the bleeding of the brakes it took all of about an hour to do both sides.

…I will update the post with my driving impressions later in the week.

In 2009 the One Lap VR-4 struggled with crank case pressure and oil control.  We were using the stock 3/8″ fitting off the valve cover feeding to a .75 quart catch can.  The stock PCV system was retained with a new PCV valve.  We found that after a 4 minute hot lapping session the catch can would fill and blow oil out of the filter all over the engine bay.  That meant that we not only risked getting DQ’d for leaking oil but we were at serious risk of a fire.  Hot oil has this uncanny way of bursting into flames when you least expect it.

At the top of our to do list for 2010 was to design and build a better system.  We took a lot of advice from the NABR and Galant VR-4 guys and this is what we came up with.  Its basically a welded aluminum tank with two 8 AN feed lines from the valve cover.  It has a 12 AN port which will connect to the pre-turbo intake pipe to provide a source of vacuum to the tank.  The really cool feature is a 6 AN drain port on the bottom which will allow the oil to flow back out of the tank and back into the block via the rear balance shaft inspection hole.  We can do this because we have removed the balance shafts from the motor.  Finally, the tank measures 3.75 quarts in volume so we should have lots of capacity and no hot oil flying around under the hood.

I started with section of 4″ extruded aluminum tube that I had left over from building intake manifolds.  The plan is to mount the tank along side the fuse box that sits in front of the passenger side wheel well along the fender.  That will give a strait shot from the valve cover and should be close enough to the intake to make connecting it a snap.  To cut the stock I am using a table saw with carbide blade.  Sounds dangerous but the blade is designed to cut metal and except for the flying bits of aluminum its no worse then cutting wood.

Instead of weld AN fittings I am using the cheapest hose ends I can find and then modifying them to fit.  The real head scratcher for me was how to design the inside of the tank.  What I did was to kind of box off the two 8 AN inlets so they would blow against a wall.  That way the oil could just run off the wall into the sump.  I also boxed off the 12 AN vacuum port so even if oil was flying around inside the tank there would be no way for it to get to it.  Finally I decided to wedge some scotch-brite pads between the vacuum box and the tank.  I am hoping that the surface area of the pads will allow oil vapor to condense and drain out before it gets to the intake pipe.  Honestly, I just don’t know how its going to work until its on the car and we are half-way across the Nation.

On the valve cover I used the existing vent port.  I knocked the stock steel tube by clamping it with a vice grip and then whacking the vice grips with a hammer until it came out.  I then drilled out the hole to 5/8″ (8 AN) and welded it all up.  The second port was mounted right next to it but I was forced to install it at a slight angle to allow it to clear the thermostat housing.  To get the stock baffle out I drilled out the little nubs and pulled it out.  I made an attempt to reinstall it but my welding skills aren’t that great and I just ended up blowing holes in the thin aluminum baffle.  So I made my own out of some 1/8″ sheet.  I traced the outline using the old baffle and then welded two tabs to keep oil form getting in from the top.  Its not pretty but it covers to ports and thats all I needed it to do.

Its not totally finished yet.  I still have to make the lines, install the tank under the hood, and make the connection to the BS inspection port.  I will update this when its all in and tested.

…as promised I have some updated photos which show the tank installed.  I wanted it to fit tighter to the fuse box but the two wire looms would not move enough to let it fit.  So it sits an inch or so closer to the valve cover then I wanted but I still think it fits well.  For now, I’ve also decided to cap off the PCV system.  I may or may not bring it back depending how the tank works without it.

The RochesterDSM One Lap team is featured this month in Mitsubishi Gearbox Magazine.  There is a great story and some cool photos too.

Click Here for the Article

The Galant VR4 platform is a collectors item to those lucky enough to find one.  Every year, Garfield Wright, owner of Tuners Nation puts together a calendar of the best Galant VR4 pictures of the year.   These calendars themselves are in limited edition.

With such a pronounced impact on the Galant VR4 community in 2009, the One Lap VR4 car is proudly taking the May slot, appropriately in time for 2010 One Lap.  Garfield went a little above and beyond this year by inserting some of the calendar dates of the event this year and even putting a map of the 2010 One Lap of America even on the back of the calendar.

The calendars will be in short supply, so if you want to pick one up, I suggest you order one before the masses find out.

Official 2010 Galant VR4 Calendar

Take 3 guys, put them in a car for 1600 miles with a normal radio that has two deck speakers and some questionable factory door speakers. I think we made it to the thruway in Henrietta before we realize we really need some attention on the audio system. While we can talk about cars for days, as we have now put to the test, the car is in desperate need of a better audio system.

As if to rub it in and poke fun at our lack of tunes, the Rockford Fosgate Evolution X showed up to represent their relationship with Mitsubishi at the 2009 Mitsubishi Owners Day.  It was very cool to see a built audio car again, though some people went over expecting to see performance parts.  I have some respect for the work, as I have strong roots in the car audio business, working for some of the shops around town when I got out of college.  I have fond memories of the scene which used to revolve around car audio and the innovations which really made the car manufacturers pay attention to the audio in the car.  Ok I will admit it, I completely whined like a 4 year old, asking for a sound system, knowing I had to drive 700+ miles to get home.

Of course their system sounded good from across the parking lot, and all we need is something that can cut through the drone of a 3″ inch exhaust at 75 MPH.  The fiberglass enclosures were encouraging, though we would need one speaker apposed to the whole back seat.  The cage was well hooped, but purposeful for holding speakers, not saving your life on the track.

We happened to run into the guys who brought the Rockford Fosgate car the night before the MOD event, eating dinner at the restaurant.  It is hard to miss a car with speakers on the hood, disguised as rally lights.  Great bunch of guys, and very approachable.  While could have easily out powered the band they brought in, they were pretty good about not out staging the guys on stage.  When the band cleared out and the music went up in the Rockford car, it sounded awesome.

Rockford Fosgate has the systems in many of the new Mitsubishi cars.  I know their system came with the Sight Sound and Speed package that I purchased when I bought the 2008 Evolution X, that I now own.

Dear Rockford Fosgate, if you guys ever feel like retrofitting a 18 year old car so that 3 guys can survive 3500+ miles of driving across America between race tracks, let us know.  We leave May 1st 2010.